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A. Doumbia: Address to Africa Summit
Written by Adama Doumbia, Secretary General, UPF-Africa
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Address to Africa Summit 2018, Cape Town, South Africa, Nov. 21–25, 2018
It is a great honor to be here. My presentation is about the Memorandum of Understanding, what we call the MOU. You know that we had the first Africa Summit in January of this year in Dakar. It was sponsored by UPF, as is this one, and its founder, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, with the gracious support of the government of Senegal, along with the national assembly of Senegal. The theme was New Africa: Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity and Shared Values.
During the Summit many solutions were proposed by the UPF founder, Mrs. Moon, our True Mother whom you saw this morning, who initiated the Summit. This topic was for discussion involving the critical issues facing humanity at this time, including poverty, conflict, environmental degradation, and lack of adequate health care and proper education for young boys and girls.
Many opportunities were explored for development of infrastructure, educational curriculum, entrepreneurship, conflict resolution and good governance in African nations, as well as interreligious dialogue and cooperation. In different sessions the panelists discussed all these issues.
During the Summit also Dr. Moon proclaimed the new age of Heavenly Africa (“HA”). Many commented on this theme, “Heavenly Africa.” Some people suggest that this is a religious concept, but Mother Moon explained that Heavenly Africa means a shining continent of hope that can realize Heavenly Parent’s ideal of creation, a world of freedom, equality and happiness. This is what we call Heavenly Africa.
In order to advance and follow the Dakar declaration, it is appropriate and desirable to move forward with the most fundamental sustainable development projects for nations in Africa. Thus the Heavenly Africa project is a package of projects that will be introduced in various nations to help advance these noble objectives.
UPF proposes to work together to explore and develop areas of shared interest and concern, which may include the ten points that I’m going to explain now.
The first point of the MOU is working with the parliamentarians of each nation centering on IAPP. I think many of the delegates here have been invited under the umbrella of IAPP.
The second point of the MOU, which is also the second point of the HA project, is working with religious leaders of all faiths, centering on the International Association for Peace and Development, IAPD, so you can see in the audience many religious leaders, bishops, archbishops, pastors, imams, etc. Here in South Africa we have some traditional religions also. They will come together and promote IAPD as a way to promote interreligious tolerance, interreligious dialogue and interreligious cooperation.
The third point is working with traditional rulers of all civic groups, centering on the International Association for Traditional Rulers for Peace (IATP). This is an organization we have been discussing in many countries.
But it is to create an organization with those who are the keepers of our traditions. Many people in Africa still relate to the traditional rulers, who share the same culture, who share the same values for centuries, for millennia. For their marriages and for conflict resolution within their own local community they still go to the traditional rulers. And if you go to some communities they are the ones who oversee the land, so if you want to create a development project in some areas, you need to go through the traditional rulers. This organization will be working all over Africa for prosperity but also to promote peace.
The fourth point is sustainable development and strategic planning initiatives modeled after the successful saemaul project of Korea. Saemaul literally means “New Village,” but it means also new mentality. It is a project developed in the 1970s in Korea. One of the participants in the conference is an expert on the saemaul and has worked for the saemaul project in Korea. He will be available for those who want to know more about saemaul. But based upon that model of saemaul which was the basis for development in Korea, we want to also promote development in Africa.
The fifth point is advancing medicine, health care and access to clean water through joint initiatives such as digging wells. In some remote villages in Africa people do not have access to fresh water. They just go to the river to get water to drink and then it causes cholera and many other problems. The question is how to promote clean water, such as digging wells for the communities, so they can have better health, and also promoting environmental development projects with the communities. Thus this fifth point is another important point, another important part of the MOU.
The sixth point is sharing mutual interest in exploring ways to collaborate on the International Peace Highway project, known as Peace Road. We are not very far from the Cape of Good Hope. This morning Mother Moon launched the International Peace Highway project here together with all of us. This is one of the projects we want each nation to take ownership of and also participate to develop the International Peace Highway project.
The seventh point is a project aimed at enhancing and expanding an altruistic ideal of the Sunhak Peace Prize, which includes cooperation and joint effort with Sunhak Peace Prize awardees. Dr. Walsh is head of that foundation, and I think next year you will see the new laureates of the peace prize. These are people active in their area promoting peace, development and protection, people who are really renowned and recognized by their communities and by people beyond their communities. They receive the Sunhak Peace Prize. The monetary value is $1 million, so it is very attractive but this is to encourage them to continue to do their good work.
The eighth project is promoting sustainable development through economic and agricultural projects, in particular coffee projects, the benchmark of which would be Hawaiian Queen Coffee. In many African countries we produce coffee. In my own country, Ivory Coast, we are one of the main producers in the world.
The problem is the farmers are not getting enough income from the Arabica and robusta coffee they are producing. The way it is produced, the process itself does not produce a high-quality coffee. If we are to promote co-prosperity, we want to promote this Kona coffee, which is a high quality coffee that can generate enough income for the farmers. This is one of the projects in the MOU for Heavenly Africa.
The ninth is Character Education.
The tenth is true family development which strengthens marriage and family values, including family blessing. This topic will be developed by another speaker so I will not go into that.
These are the ten points in the package but these are also the 10 points that we put in the MOU. If a nation agrees with these 10 points, they agree to work with UPF to promote these 10 points, then they sign the MOU. In this project we have realized the goal of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universal values. Both parties, the state, the government and UPF, shall consider their respective capacities for engagement in this MOU and actively participate or withdraw as appropriate, depending on circumstances. We have been promoting these MOUs.
Earlier this year we went to Senegal and discussed this with the government of Senegal, especially the minister of agriculture, the minister of solidarity and the minister of infrastructure development. Currently we are very advanced with discussions with the minister of agriculture, to sign the MOU in the case of Senegal.
In Tanzania also, we went there and discussed with the office of the prime minister. The prime minister’s office assigned some officials to discuss further. I think some MPs are here from Tanzania, the ones following up on this MOU.
In Togo we are signing the MOU with the prime minister himself. In Niger, the whole government welcomed Dr. Walsh and his delegation, and the prime minister himself signed the MOU for Niger. But specifically the minister of agriculture and some of the other ministers also were involved.
The same also goes for Burundi, where the highest-level authorities are involved in discussions of this MOU.
In Liberia we met the president of Liberia, George Weah, but currently we have signed the MOU with the minister of agriculture.
In Madagascar we met the president. Unfortunately I heard he will not be re-elected this time but anyway he welcomed the project and Madagascar is preparing also to sign the MOU.
I want to encourage each and every one to promote this MOU in your area. Just choose one of the 10 areas. You can start from somewhere, from where you feel you can sign the MOU and we will be there to sign the MOU with you. Thank you very much for listening.
To go to the 2018 Africa Summit Schedule page, click here.